Monday, December 21, 2009

this weekend we celebrated my c.'s 23rd birthday! he is my very best friend and my partner in crime. we have so much fun together always going on new adventures and getting into mischief. he is pretty much the coolest guy i know.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

so i have this super awesome big sister,deni, and she is a derby girl. she plays for the bomber babes and is pretty fierce on a pair of skates.

she invited c. & i out to "skate with a derby girl night" at classic skating.

i can't remember the last time we had so much fun!

deni ,being the good big sister she is, held my hand until i got the hang of it. it has only been 102 years since the last time i strapped on some roller skates. c. didn't need any help at all he is a natural at all things athletic.

Monday, December 7, 2009

these little cheesecakes are so easy and a total hit especially if you are running short on time and need a quick treat for all those holiday parties & potlucks

Mix Together:

16 oz (2 packages) of Cream Cheese, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup Sugar

3 Eggs

1 Tbsp Vanilla

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Mix together until smooth.

Use your mini cupcake pan and grab some 2" baking cups. (if you don't have a mini cup cake pan- you can use just a normal baking sheet with aluminum baking cups instead(like these), they may lose just a little shape, but will still look great)

Put Mini Nilla Wafers flat side down in the bottom of the cups. Easiest cheesecake crust ever right?! Then fill each cup about 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Play some Jenga while you wait for these little guys to cool down, well at least that is what c. & i do.When they are cooled all the way (i put them in the fridge to speed this process up) spoon on some pie filling of your choice (we used both raspberry & cherry) and refrigerate. This recipe will make roughly 4 dozen. How simple is that?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

this Wednesday we will be celebrating the sometimes looked over holiday of veterans day.this is a day that we can thank the wonderful men and women who serve our country and protect the freedoms that we enjoy.

c.'s grandfather sam served as a green beret in Vietnam. He fought valiantly and was lucky enough to make it home in one piece- then many years later in 2004 he went over to Iraq as a civilian to drive truck across battle lines to get supplies to our troops. On sami's 1 year and two day anniversary in Iraq his convoy hit a road side bomb and he was filled with shrapnel, lost half of his skull, and one of his eyes. And after many years of hard recovery he is finally getting back to his old self, but will never fully recover from his battle wounds.

there are countless stories of loss and bravery i am sure most of us have heard a few, but on Wednesday please take a moment out of busy schedules to be grateful for the sacrifice that so many soldiers have made for the freedom that we sometimes take for granted.

Well, Grandpa Sami had a birthday last week he turned 60!! happy birthday! c. and i were assigned to make some yummy cupcakes to celebrate! So in honor of his bravery & dedication to his country we made him camouflage cupcakes!

wilton makes the most amazing icing coloring that we used to get these great camo colors. the dye is only $1.70 a piece and come in a wide spectrum of colors and shades- so if you ever have a specific color for a project check em out (i got mine at Michael's) we were going for a camo effect so we did 6 thinner layers of batter instead of the 3 thick layers (like in the halloween tie-dye cupcakes)fresh out of the oven the tops look like this! they didn't even need frostingnow cut it open a look inside! i love how they all turn out so different just depending on how the layers come together. how amazing are those greens? we used chocolate frosting to look like dirt. then decorated with little army men and camo stars. here are all of the different stages together.close ups. i think these little guys look ready for battle.we may have run out of chocolate frosting towards the end- so we improvise. we made some tasty green frosting for the rest- it kind of looked like grass at the front of the battle line. this is one of the best things about baking and decorating, there is freedom to just let your creativity roll. HAPPY VETERANS DAY TO ALL OF THE BRAVE MEN & WOMEN WHO SERVE & FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

because this week started off a little rough due to the "jackass" featured in my previous post, i have been way to frazzled and discombobulated to post the rest of the Halloween festivities that were enjoyed. but today is a better day. technaglass fixed my window bright and early this morning for a much better price then i thought it would be and my bank is taking care of all of the fraudulent transactions- so ...here is a happy post.

c. & i love to carve pumpkins (as mentioned in many a previous posts) c. loves to do the most difficult and challenging pattern that is available just to prove he is super awesome. after seriously 30 minutes of looking at patterns and evaluating the difficulty he finally settled on this freaky clown. i think he did an amazing job, like always. he is so incredibly talented! i decided to go a much more simple route this time- i did both the cute cupcake and the little angry baby face. i drew my own pattern for the cupcake pumpkin and i was more than pleased with the way it turned out. there was also "Witches Tea" at Gardner Village with all of the female cousins on the rogers side. it is always such a good time to get together with all the girls, get manis & pedis, and just laugh. i think one of the best parts is shopping with my sisters & mom. we have so much fun together and always spend way to much money! i love it! then the big day finally arrived! HALLOWEEN! the one day a year that you can be anyone you want to be and no one looks at you funny for painting yourself blue or wearing a tutu!

this year c. decided to be maurice, from little monsters. it is one of his all time favorite movies and he has wanted to be him for years. His costume was awesome! people were stopping him to take pictures. His mom made him a custom vest, and he did all of his own make-up.c. even cut his hair into a mohawk just to get all of the details right. he was very impressive!i went as a troll doll this year. yes that is a giant rhinestone on my belly button. i was pretty happy with the way it turned out. my sissy deni made this awesome tutu and let me borrow it.Ruby had to be in every picture we took, i think she likes showing of her cool pumpkin t-shirt. my parents had their annual halloween extravaganza at their house. this is all of the girls before the party started. me the troll doll. deni was "Hell on Wheels" she looked so super hot in her little devil outfit! my mom was a wench that was being turned into a vampire by my dad, they looked very fierce! and my youngest sister sami was Minnie mouse! she made her own costume and looked so adorable! my dad was a classic vampire (think interview with a vampire era) - as mentioned before my mom is his wench that he is turning her. such an awesome couple costume.my sissy and i cinching my mom into her costume. i thought she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen-but hey its better to look good than to feel good. :)

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Dear Jackass Who Broke my car window and stole my wallet-I hope you enjoyed your breakfast you bought with my debit card.thanks for leaving my school books i do appreciate it.and remember,unfortunately for you, karma is a bitch.Have a great day.

Friday, October 9, 2009

it is October my favorite month of the year! lots of pumpkin carving, make spooky treats, wearing fun costumes, and it is my birthday month!! the decorations are awesome there is a crisp cool feel in the air. i cant get enough!C. and i decided to plant a little garden this year. we had tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins. unfortunately by the first frost this is all we had to show for our trouble. i guess we don't really have the touch yet ....

maybe next year we will do better :)

we are only a week into october and we have wasted no time partaking in the haunted halloween activities!

c. takes pumpkin carving and easter egg dying very seriously. i love that about him. Madison carving her master "peace" ha ha that was a funny joke you will get it soon......get it now? master "peace" this is madison's peace sign made of bones.

ruby girl even got her own pumpkin- this was before she though it would be fun to chew it up...madison and me. i love her.all of the beautiful pumpkins together. pretty awesome if you ask me.

all of these designs came out of a book called "diggin the decades" so all of the designs are nostalgic things turned haunted. Like Evil PacMan. Carved by drewdrew (c. little bro)

Punk-Ula done by C. - his was the coolest out of all of them it has shadows and shading and all this other fancy pants stuff. he did an awesome job like always!

last but not least is my little pumpkin. if you can not tell she is a marilyn monroe witch. i think she is adorable.

What would a blog post be without something about baking?! madison's older sister is having a birthday this weekend and i was assigned the task of cupcakes. it is going to be a Costume/Halloween party and i wanted to do something fun.

So i decided put a spin on the typical tie-dye cupcake idea- and turn it colors that most people don't really consider incredibly appetizing- a spooky combination of yellow, purple, orange and green matched the adorable Halloween cupcake cups.add some neon green frosting, black sprinkles and a spider! and TU-DUH!! spooky cupcakes.